Solar Impulse Becomes First Plane to Go Around the World Using Solar Power

For anyone who isn’t aware, Solar Impulse is an aeroplane. The twist? She’s run using solar power. Over 17,000 solar cells line its wings, supplying a series of electric motors and charging four on-board lithium batteries. It’s designed to be entirely solar-powered, and, thanks to those batteries, able to fly through day and night.

Solar Impulse’s journey started in March of last year, and this baby has hit all the hottest airports – including in the US alone, Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley International Airport and Dayton, Ohio, managing to make twostops in Arizona. No wonder the journey took a mere 505 days. (FWIW, the plane also travelled at the speed of a car.)

Solar Impulse celebrated on Twitter, tagging celebs like Taylor Swift and Justin Timberlake in a tweet revealing the news: